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Officially, I think I joined Facebook in the fall of 2005.
I was a senior in high school.
Back then, Facebook was maybe a little more than a year old. Back then, it was cool, because it was seen as a social media app for college students and even required a college email address to create an account.
So I did what everyone else did in Facebook's infancy. I created an account. I posted pictures. I filled out my profile with my favorite movies, books, and quotes. I eagerly searched for friends and added them.
It's interesting to try and remember no-frills Facebook, compared to what it is now. I remember that every change -- the addition of Facebook status, the honesty box, or a new layout -- was met with either fervor or excitement.
But, somewhere along the way, Facebook stopped being fun. Even in college, Facebook started to wear on me at some point. I once wrote an article called "10 Things I Hate about Facebook," because, even at 19 or 20 years old, there are things about it I found irritating.
That's why I wasn't entirely surprised by a recent Associated Press article, which found that, although Facebook still has a billion users, many of them are old. Research firm Insider Intelligence estimates that just 28% of Facebook's users are between 18 and 34 years old. That's compared with nearly 46% in the same demographic for TikTok and 42% for Instagram.
As 24-year-old Devin Walsh told the AP, "When I think of Facebook, I think, ugh, like cheugy (a Gen Z term for not cool), older people, like parents posting pictures of their kids, random status updates and also people fighting about political issues."
On some level, I agree with Walsh.
Not to sound like an old man yelling at the clouds -- I'm just outside the 18 to 34 demographic -- but I think my attitude changed when Facebook became open to anyone and everyone. Adults -- aunts and uncles and my parents -- eventually added me as friends.
Don't get me wrong, I love being friends with all of them, but, eventually, Facebook stopped being cool.
That's how it works as a kid, right? Once your parents like it, it's not cool anymore.
Facebook is still very popular and very much a part of everyday life that I'm willing to embrace, to a point.
Occasionally, I'll post photos from a vacation or a photo here and there, but I'm not in the business of posting a lot, so, other than a few daily timeline scrolls I don't use it much anymore.
Facebook still offers a lot of positives, including connecting with friends and family, promoting a business, and sharing photos of kids and grandkids, among other things.
But there's also the negative side of Facebook that's a real bummer. The one where users are prone to oversharing, overposting, turning comment sections into nasty debate forums, and offering their opinions when no one asked for them. Sometimes, it's as if everyone is suddenly given a megaphone and clamoring to be the loudest voice in the room.
But I get it. That's the nature of social media these days. You take the good with the bad, and settle somewhere in the middle.
"The fact that we are talking about Facebook being 20 years old, I think that is a testament of what (founder) Mark (Zuckerburg) developed when he was in college. It's pretty incredible," Insider Intelligence analyst Debra Aho Williamson said. "It is still a very powerful platform around the world."
It's a safe bet that Facebook will be around in another decade, too, and I'll still have a profile.
Just don't expect me to start flooding your timeline with likes and shares and friend requests.
James Andersen can be reached at 989-358-5686 or jandersen@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.